


His Best Friend's Wife

by sjhw_tolerance (mscorkill)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-28
Updated: 2012-03-28
Packaged: 2017-11-02 15:23:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/370478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mscorkill/pseuds/sjhw_tolerance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yet one more team with a distant connection to the SGC comes through the gate during Ripple Effect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Best Friend's Wife

**Author's Note:**

> I've obviously been spending too much time in AU's recently. Enjoy!
> 
> Part of the 2010 Fic project.
> 
> Season Nine; originally posted March 2010

**HIS BEST FRIEND’S WIFE**

Some kind of weird fate or karma must be working in his life, Colonel Charles Kawalsky decides, when his team steps through the Stargate into a reality that isn’t their own yet is achingly familiar to him. He pauses on the ramp, his hands reaching for his weapon, his team fans out behind him, not sure why their leader has stopped but following his lead. This isn’t the first time he’s been met by armed guards in this universe, but instead of disbelief and confusion, these SF’s seem almost comically weary as they command them to lower their weapons. 

“Welcome to Earth.”

It’s an unfamiliar voice and Charlie looks towards the control room, an older man stands at the microphone. Charlie doesn’t recognize him but he recognizes the authority in his voice. 

“I know you must have questions, all of which will be answered in due time. However right now I will ask you to let us take you some place more comfortable.” Charlie smiles and gives the strange general in the control room a sloppy salute. Some place more comfortable…he wonders if that will be the infirmary or a holding cell? 

Unclipping his weapon, he hands it over and says to his team, “Its okay, kids. I’ve been here before.” Charlie sees the light bulb blink on over Lorne’s head and with a good natured grin, he hands over his weapon. Astor grumbles as she complies and Charlie knows the feisty lieutenant would just as soon shoot first and ask questions later. The kid looks confused, but he follows orders, just like he’s been doing it for years instead of just a few months.

Keeping his eyes and ears open, Charlie follows the SF’s out of the gate room, confident that his team is doing the same thing. On the surface, it doesn’t look like too much has changed since the last time he was here. His team gets fewer curious looks than he would have expected, given the circumstances, but then again, no one had seemed too surprised to see them either. However, they do get a few double-takes from some of the passing personnel and Charlie wonders which members of his team—besides himself, of course—are no longer alive in this reality.

The some place more comfortable turns out to be the dining hall. After all that’s happened to him during his long career, Charlie really figures there isn’t much left that can surprise him, but it seems like the universe still has a few more tricks up her sleeves. The dining hall is full of familiar faces and once the initial shock of being confronted with a room full of duplicates passes, he quickly sorts out the players. Their arrival garners them a few curious looks from the groups already there, but they quickly go back to whatever they were doing, seemingly blasé regarding the arrival of another team. 

Charlie knows his team is bursting with questions, but he signals them to stay quiet until after the SF’s deposit them at a corner table. So far he’s counted at least five distinct SG teams—and at least that many duplicates of personnel, some he recognizes and some he doesn’t. 

“What the hell’s going on, Colonel?” Astor hisses at him.

Lorne lounges back in his chair in a pose that is anything but casual. “We’re in an alternate reality, aren’t we?”

Elliott’s eyes light up and he looks around with curiosity. “No kidding? Like when you and Doctor Carter saved the Earth from Apophis?”

“Yeah,” Charlie tells his team. “Just like that.”

Elliott’s eyes grow even wider and he pulls out a small notepad and starts scribbling away, his eyes darting around the room as he starts making notes. The kid has the right idea and now that Astor at least looks calm on the surface, she also starts taking stock of their surroundings. Neither of them were at the SGA during that time, but they’ve all heard the tale. “Is this the same alternate reality?” Lorne asks.

“Yeah, it is.” Charlie answers with confidence, not sure how he knows this is the same reality he and Doctor Carter came to six years earlier. There’s just something in his gut that recognizes the place. 

“See anyone you know?”

Charlie slowly nods his head; eyes ever busy scanning the occupants of the room. Besides the one familiar SF guarding the entrance to the dining hall, he’s seen two Daniel Jackson’s, one Teal’c, half a dozen Carter’s, one Fraiser and several of that pain in the ass Tok’ra Martouf. He finds it odd that he doesn’t see an O’Neill, but then again, he doesn’t see another one of himself either. Besides the Carter’s, none of the individuals he recognize exist in their universe. 

Elliott looks up from his notepad. “Which ones do you recognize, sir?” Charlie raises an eyebrow and Elliott looks flustered for a moment and then quickly adds, “Besides the obvious, sir.”

Charlie rattles off the names while Elliott hurriedly writes them on his pad. Astor is less enthralled and she grumbles, “What the hell are we supposed to do? Just sit here?”

“Easy, Lieutenant,” he murmurs, his gaze drawn to the entrance of the room where a man wearing regulation olive drab BDU’s now stands, conferring with one of the guards. And while he doesn’t recognize him, Charlie realizes right away that the man is from this universe, his air of authority and security—along with the clipboard—giving him away. The man is about six foot, trim build, short cropped brown hair, the perfect picture of an Air Force officer and Charlie watches expectantly as he weaves his way to their table. 

The man stops at their table, his eyes moving over the occupants, pausing long enough on Lorne to let Charlie know that out of the four of them, only Lorne must have a duplicate in this universe.   
“I’m Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell of the SGC. As you may or may not have guessed, you’re in an alternate reality.” 

Mitchell launches into a complicated explanation that has Elliott’s eyes lighting up as he scribbles away furiously. Astor’s expression becomes even gloomier and Lorne listens attentively. Nothing unusual in any of their reactions. He’s got a good team, rebuilding Earth wasn’t easy, even with help from the Asgard, and he’s proud of what they’ve accomplished. Charlie’s paying just enough attention that when he hears Mitchell says, “I need your names, please,” he nods at Lorne.

“I’m Major Evan Lorne of SG1,” his second answers genially. He gestures across the table. “Our leader, Colonel Charles Kawalsky; Lieutenant Cheryl Astor and Lieutenant Stephen Elliott.” There’s no flicker of recognition in Mitchell’s eyes at any of their names except for Lorne’s, confirming what Charlie has already suspected.

“So what’s the plan, Mitchell?” Charlie drawls. He slouches in the chair, his pose deliberately casual but Mitchell’s eyes narrow slightly and Charlie knows the other man recognizes the challenge in his question. “How are you going to return us to our universe?” 

“As you can see, our two universes aren’t the only ones affected.” He gestures around the room. “We’re working on a way to send everyone home.”

Charlie snorts. “You mean you’ve got Carter working on a solution, don’t you?”

Mitchell gives him a speculative look and Charlie just looks back blandly. “If you mean Colonel Carter,” Mitchell continues on smoothly, “then yes, she’s working on a way to get everyone home.”

“Well, there’s nothing to worry about then, is there?” If anyone can figure it out, it’ll be Carter. I mean, there’s enough of them around here, right?”

“We’ll keep you updated. But for now I suggest just relax, have some lunch.” Mitchell leaves, wandering around the room, stopping at the various tables on his way out.

Elliott leans across the table, his eyes so young and earnest. “Why didn’t you tell him, sir?”

“Tell him what, kid?”

“That you’ve been here before.”

The kid has a valid question and even Astor looks interested in the answer. “That was six years ago,” Charlie replies easily enough. “And the circumstances of our arrival were completely different. Unless I missed a quantum mirror somewhere on that last planet?”

Lorne smothers a grin and Elliott looks perplexed for only a moment before he’s smiling too. Astor on the other hand obviously isn’t amused, pushing back her chair and muttering, “I’m going to go get some coffee.”

Those aren’t the only reasons he’s reluctant to disclose his previous visit to this universe. There are only three people he trusts in this reality and he hasn’t seen any of them yet, so thank you very much, Colonel Mitchell whoever the hell you are, but he’ll reserve judgment until he’s had a chance to talk with someone he knows. But for now…. 

“Lorne?” Charlie jerks his head towards crowded room. “Mingle. See what you can find out.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Lorne grins and wanders over towards the tray line where a small group stands at the coffee machine. Astor is working the room too, he notices, a cup of coffee in hand and deep in discussion with one of the Martouf’s.

“Elliot? Some paper, please.”

Elliott flips to the back of his note pad, ripping out a sheet and sliding it across the table to him. Charlie pulls a pen out of his pocket and writes a few sentences, folding the paper in half when he finishes and carefully printing ‘Colonel Samantha Carter’ on it. “Keep an eye on those two,” he tells Elliott. “I’ll be right back.”

Charlie weaves his way through the tables over to the doorway. “Noonan,” he says to the SF standing guard. “How ya’ doing?”

The SF relaxes his stance a bit and grins. “Thought I recognized you, sir.”

“Yeah well…just like a bad penny, eh?” Noonan was one of the guards assigned to him the last time he’d been here. A few years younger and lot greener than the man standing in front of him today.

“How are things going for you, sir?” 

“Well, they had been going pretty good until we ended up here.”

“Yeah, I get you. This is one weird mess, even for us.”

They both look around the noisy room for a moment before Charlie gets to the point. “Will you do me a favor, Sergeant?”

“If I can, sir.”

Charlie holds out the folded note. “Can you see that Colonel Carter gets this?”

Noonan hesitates for a brief moment before he nods, taking the slip of paper and putting in his breast pocket. “I’ll deliver it myself.”

“Thanks. I owe you one.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well,” Charlie comments, looking around the small room. “We’ve slept in worse.”

Its early evening and they’ve been escorted to what’s an isolation room at their SGA, two sets of bunk beds are crowded into the room with a battered table and two chairs the only other furniture. Astor immediately flops down on one of the bottom bunks declaring loudly, “Dibs.”

Lorne shrugs and tosses his jacket onto the bunk over Astor. “Elliott,” he says, “you take the other top.”

Elliott nods good-naturedly and sits down on one of the chairs, unlacing his boots. It’s been a long day and while they’ve been given periodic ‘updates’, Charlie’s frustrated—and his team is chafing—at the lack of knowledge and inactivity. He wants to trust these people, but he knows he’d feel a hell of a lot better if he could hear it from someone he actually knows. 

There’s a brief knock at the door and it swings open, a fresh-faced SF stands there. “Colonel Kawalsky?” he asks. Charlie stands and the young man holds the door open. “Colonel Carter can see you now.”

Lorne raises an eyebrow and Charlie shrugs. Even Astor looks interested and Charlie can only imagine the conversation the three of them will have once he leaves. “Stay out of trouble while I’m gone. Especially you, Elliott.” He tosses back the last comment to tease their junior member, the kid is good but he really needs to learn to lighten up.

He follows the SF up and down corridors, keeping mental track of where they’ve been and the changes he can recognize from his previous visit. After an elevator ride up two levels, they finally walk down a very familiar looking hallway. The SF pauses halfway down and knocks on a partially open door. “Colonel Kawalsky is here, ma’am.”

The SF stands aside and Charlie stands in the doorway, once more amazed at how similar she is to his Samantha Carter. Her hair is still short and when she looks up, a brilliant smile curving her lips, he can see that her eyes are still just as blue. 

“Charlie!” She seems truly delighted to see him again and Charlie feels some of his unease at their whole situation start to dissipate.

“Sam,” he greets her, stepping into the room and giving her a big hug when she comes around from behind the work table. When he releases her, he holds her at arms length for a moment. “Fancy meeting you here.”

She’s still smiling when she shakes her head. “Of all the universes?”

“Something like that. What are the odds?” He recognizes the expression on her face and quickly adds teasingly, “No, you don’t need to quote them to me.”

“You know me too well,” she replies and then realizes what she’s said. “No,” she amends, “you know her too well.”

There’s a moment of awkward silence before Charlie asks, “How’s it going? Are you going to be able to figure out how to get us home?”

She looks relieved that the conversation is heading into safe territory and he smiles slightly. She is more like his Samantha than probably either of them realize. “We’re working on it, Charlie. It’s not as simple as it might seem.”

“To you, maybe,” he interjects. 

That earns him a quick smile and she goes on. “And of course, the Ori threat complicates everything.”

“Yeah,” Charlie says, his ears perking up at the mention of the Ori. “We haven’t encountered them yet, but it’s all anyone here can talk about.”

“You haven’t run across the Ori?” A thoughtful look crosses her face. “I suppose that shouldn’t be a big surprise,” she finally comments. “It’s probably the differences in our universes that have contributed to that. Are you still fighting the Goa’uld?”

“Not so much,” he admits. “Everyone now and then we run across one that feels a bit cocky, but the Asgard are pretty firm about protecting their protected planets.”

“That’s good,” she says. “Hopefully your path won’t cross with the Ori.”

“Yeah, they sound like a pretty nasty piece of work.” Charlie really hopes that the Ori stay wherever they currently are, his Earth has had enough troubles without yet another false god trying to conquer them.

“So, how are things in your universe?” Sam asks brightly. 

Charlie recognizes her tactic and allows her to change the topic. “Good, real good. With help from the Asgard we’ve been able to rebuild almost everything that was destroyed. We even have a national holiday to celebrate the day Asgard came.” Charlie grins. “But of course, those of us who were there know we’re really celebrating the day that SG1 saved us.”

Sam ducks her head, looking embarrassed. “Well, that’s what we do,” she mumbles.

Charlie laughs. “Speaking of SG1, where the hell is Jack? And Hammond?”

“General Hammond is retired and Jack is a general now, he’s in Washington, working with Homeworld Security.”

“Jack O’Neill a general? I’ll be damned.” Charlie studies her for a moment. “So you two?” He lets his voice trail off, the implication in his question heavy in the air.

Sam smiles and shakes her head, clearly embarrassed again. “We have an…agreement.”

“So that’s what they call it in this reality?”

“Charlie!” She rolls her eyes and he grins. “It works for us,” she adds. “And maybe one day, when the Ori threat is gone, we’ll do something more permanent.”

“Trust me, Sam,” he says in all sincerity, “there’s always something.”

She sighs softly and shrugs. “Maybe.” Her pensive expression brightens then and she asks, “So what about you? And how is Samantha?”

“We’re doing well.” Sam gives him a puzzled look and he reaches into his breast pocket, pulling out a snapshot. “This is why you’ve got to get me home before next week.” He hands her the picture and watches her face as she studies it. He knows what she sees, a smiling brown-haired, brown-eyed boy standing next to a kneeling woman with long blonde hair who has one arm around the boy and her other arm around a pixie with blonde hair and blue eyes that match her mother’s. “John’s birthday is on Tuesday.”

“How old is he?” she murmurs. 

“He’ll be seven.” Charlie can see her doing the math, it’s not something they’ve kept secret, everyone knows Samantha was widowed in the Goa’uld attack. “Bridget,” he adds, naming the pixie, “just turned three.”

“He looks like his father,” she comments, her voice soft. She looks at him then, her eyes full of understanding. “And Bridget looks just her mother.”

“Thank god for that,” Charlie agrees. He takes the picture back when she hands it to him, looking at the smiling faces of his wife and children before tucking it back in his pocket. “So you can see why I need to get home.”

“We’ll find a way, Charlie.” 

He hears the confidence and resolve in her voice and whether in this universe or his own, he feels reassured. “If anyone can find a way, it’s you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Charlie doesn’t see Sam again until it’s time for his team to finally go through the Stargate to their universe and he’s touched that she took the time to see them off. Mitchell looks on with unabashed curiosity when she gives him a long hug, kissing his cheek. Charlie catches him watching and winks. “Don’t worry, my wife knows.” A comment that sets his team into gales of laughter. 

Sam grins and steps back. “It’s a long story,” she says to Mitchell.

“Which I for one, can’t wait to hear,” Mitchell drawls with a wicked grin.

“Take care of yourself,” Charlie says, setting his cap firmly on his head and following his team up the ramp. He pauses briefly at the event horizon and with a final salute and grin directed towards Sam says, “Be sure and give O’Neill a big kiss for me the next time you see him.”

**THE END**


End file.
